Breaking Out (19 page)

“I love a challenge,” he whispered. His other
hand was moving around to my back.

“What’s going on over there?” Mark asked.

“Lover’s quarrel.” Jay laughed, pulling me
against him, leaning down and kissing me. It was a mega
shock–something I’d never imagined he’d do in a million freakin’
years. My body was suddenly paralyzed, my mind trying to order it
to do something. Kick him. Hit him. Scream. Or maybe kiss him back.
His lips weren’t moving and his tongue hadn’t made an appearance
like in those romance books I read late at night. No, he wasn’t
rough or demanding. His mouth was soft against mine: gentle but
firm.

This close I was able to take in a good dose
of his scent, woodsy and minty, a combo I liked. I realized pretty
fast that I didn’t want to hit him or scream at him. Shifting my
balance I took half a step closer and relaxed, leaning in the
tiniest bit and kissing him back. My mind understood that he was
kissing me so the goon wouldn’t think we were up to something bad,
or maybe to keep me from hurting the stupid wolf, but still…

No guy had ever kissed me before, and it felt
nice. Nice to be held in someone’s arms, so close that you were
practically breathing the same air. I could smell the shampoo we
all shared and taste the salt on his lips from the corn chips he’d
been snacking on in the boat. The kiss was simple, sweet. I liked
it and I wished it’d been real.

‘Course I couldn’t let him know that.

I shoved against his broad chest and he
backed away, smiling again. “You’re an asshole.” But he knew I
didn’t mean it.

“I’ve heard that before.” He licked his lips,
grinning. “But did it work?”

“I’m not going to kick that guy if that’s
what you mean.”

“Smart girl.”

“You know—I’m a grown female, not a girl.
Especially not a little girl.”

“Soon, maybe.”

“Woman enough for you, bear.” He laughed out
loud, a real belly laugh this time.

CHARLIE

CHAPTER THIRTY

“You’re
asking for something that might get us killed.” The boat was
bobbing in the water, anchored in a secluded inlet on the opposite
side of the island from where we’d originally landed, not far from
the touristy town of Avalon. I’d told the captain of the
Sea
Stone
that we’d decided to stick around on the island, maybe
spend the night, and would like him to drop us off at an island
marina where I might be able to rent a sailboat. The rental process
had gone smoothly, although the marina manager had asked to see our
IDs even though I was paying in cash.

Ivy was stressed to the max, worrying about
her clansman and what that guy Tellek would say if she didn’t
immediately report what she’d found out. She kept looking down at
the water, as if some dude was going to catapult out of the ocean
and land on the deck. I mean, who knew what these sea creatures
could do?

Right now her entire focus was on rescuing
the other kelpie, and she was being all “do it now” and nothing
normal like “lets figure out a plan.” I was afraid that short of us
tying her up and forcing her back to LA, she was going in with or
without my help.

“I told you. You don’t have to come.” She
grunted and turned away, kneeling on the deck cushion and leaning
too far over the edge.

“Can you sit down like a normal person?
You’re making me nervous and I can’t think.”

“I won’t drown if I fall in.”

“That might be true, but I’d probably still
jump in after you out of instinct and then we’d both be sitting
here soaking wet.” I frowned, raking fingers through my overlong
hair. This was a royal mess. Aaron should be told immediately about
what I’d found out after examining the wolves, a disgusting job
that had me gagging in the restroom. Seeing my reaction, Ms. Turner
had gotten smirky, but after a few bad minutes I was able to get
myself focused back on the investigation. Jay and Ivy were lucky to
have missed that scene.

But now what? Ivy said he was innocent. Ms.
Turner said he was a murderer. Because she was a powerful female
alpha, it was really hard for me to tell if she was lying or not.
Ivy had lied to me plenty of times. So who do I listen to? If I
could talk to the prisoner, I’d know for sure.

I traced the scar on my hand, something I
found myself doing a lot lately. I had the means to get to the
truth, but was it ethical to use it? I could have gone into Ms.
Turner’s head and made her tell me what she knew. I’d be taking
away her freedom, but if I saved a life by doing it, did that make
it okay?

Ivy was looking at me with those enormous
eyes, hoping I’d agree to help, assuming I’d come up with some
stellar plan to sneak in and rescue this creature I didn’t even
know. I’d be risking my life and Jay’s, because if we were caught
trespassing, they had the right to shoot both of us.

I thought about the strange wounds on the
bodies I’d viewed. They weren’t made with wolf claws or teeth, that
was certain, and they didn’t look like knife wounds either. I’d
taken close ups with my phone and showed Jay. He’d agreed on all
counts.

“Ivy. Do you have claws?” She raised her
fingers, bending them and pretending to slash at me like a cat. “I
mean when you change form.”

“In the water we grow fins for swimming and
sharp teeth to defend ourselves.”

“No claws?”

“None. But we are faster than any other sea
creature, much faster than a cheetah is on land.”

“But you said your people can’t live on land,
unless they have your gift to remain human, right?”

“Most of the highest Royals can survive for
long periods on land, but each kelpie also has a land form. ” She
held up a finger for each form. “We are kelpie, human and
steed.’

“Steed?”

She stood, straightening her spine and
speaking with reverence of a time long ago. “We are the ancient
horses of Faerie. Fae kings and queens, lords and ladies, rode us
into war. Songs were written about us, but we have been abandoned
and forgotten. We build our hidden castles near the land so that we
may still take our ancient form.”

“Do the fae know you’re here?”

She shrugged. “They don’t search for us. We
simply wait to be called.”

“Called?”

“You’ll call on us, won’t you? When the war
comes?”

Holy crap. I’d found another whole race of
people who believed the BS that I was some kind of freakin’
superhero. I stood and started to pace, cursing under my breath.
Ivy’s eyes grew huge as my curses got more creative. I needed to go
for a run in the worst way, but the boat deck just didn’t fit the
bill.

“I guess I pissed him off, huh?” she asked
Jay in a whisper.

“Yeah, he thinks the whole prophecy is a
total fantasy and that Sinlae, the demi fey who made the prophecy,
was probably on acid and that…”

“I don’t think she was on acid!”

“Okay, maybe she’s a secret honey wine
addict.”

“Just shut up, Jay.”

Jay stood, moving toward me, anger burning in
his eyes. “No, I’m not gonna shut up. You’re gonna listen to me. I
don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about the prophecy. All I
know is that you say you want to help people and then you make up
ten excuses why you can’t.”

“I’m doing my best…”

“You’re hiding from your own magic.”

“You don’t know anything about what I’m
doing.”

“Really? I think I know you better than you
do, sometimes. You got another friend who spent half his life at
your house? We’ve trained with weapons side by side for years.
You’ve kicked my butt on the field too many times to count, but I
kept coming back. Who else has listened to you complain about your
life until his ears were ringing? Who else…”

“Jay…” I shouted.

“Why did you bring me? Why am I here,
Char?”

“For backup. You’re my second.”

“If you wanted back-up you would’ve brought a
fae guard. I’ve got no magic. I can do what I can do, and I do it
really well, but the fact is, you don’t need a lot of backup.”

“Why do
you
think I brought you?”

“Because I know you better than anyone and I
won’t bullshit you, and today, right here is a perfect example. Sit
down and listen to me.”

“Fine. Talk.” I sat and so did Jay. We glared
at each other for a few seconds, then Jay took in a long breath. I
knew what was coming, and it was the last thing I wanted to
hear.

“You’re acting like a coward. I see you
staring at that scar, and I think you’re staring at it for the
wrong reasons.”

“You have a lot of nerve saying that.”

“You got it because you tried to make someone
a zombie, a robot who would dance to your tune. Isaiah freaked you
out so much you hardly ever went back to that skill, to practice
it, to hone it and learn what else you can do. He told you to
practice, right? How many times did you practice?

“Three or four.”

“Three or four. How many hours have you put
into using a sword, a gun, a crossbow?”

“Hundreds. Thousands.”

“Me too. That’s the stuff I can do. But you
can do so much more. There we were in the Sierras and you practiced
your magic, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you practice?”

“Making fae light.”

“Right. Big whoop. You can make fae
light.”

“It’ll come in fucking handy when we’re lost
somewhere in the pitch black.”

“You know what would’ve been even better? If
you’d practiced taking the lines to go somewhere you’ve never been
before. You didn’t practice that once before we left, did you?”

“No, but I haven’t killed us or
anything.”

“Wow. I’m so impressed. Look, one thing I
learned from my dad, Kyle, was that it’s great when you finally hit
that bulls eye dead on for the first time, but you need to practice
it a thousand times to make it natural, to be consistent.”

“I know, I know. Kyle taught me too.”

“If your great-grannie the archdemon showed
up today to start trouble, you’d be dead meat and so would most of
your friends and your family. But if you started to train, I mean
seriously train, tapping into all that mumbo jumbo you got in your
system, you’ll kick her butt.”

“An archdemon? You’re crazy.”

“You don’t even know what you can do, ‘cause
you’re afraid to find out.”

“I’m not afraid of the magic. I just…I don’t
want to hurt anyone.”

“Learn to control it and maybe you won’t have
to. But first you gotta learn what it is. You’re freakin’ bubbling
over with all kinds of shit. You’re glowing, right?” He turned to
Ivy. “You see it too.”

“It’s so cool.”

“I’m what?”

“Look at your skin. When you get pissed off,
you glow.”

“Never noticed that.”

“It’s like your whole system is finally
online and ready to start running programs. But then you put it in
sleep mode. Can’t you feel it? You must be able to.” I nodded. “So
let me ask you a question.”

“What?”

“Why didn’t you morph into someone totally
different instead of just disguising yourself in this half-assed
way?”

“It takes too much energy.”

“Too much ley line energy?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh huh. Isn’t that shit kind of
limitless?”

“It tires me out.”

“Uh huh. Are your using both kinds?’

“I hardly ever use the demon lines, only the
fae.”

“Why not? They’re equal in the human realm,
right? And you can access both. You’re the only one who can. In the
entire world. Maybe in the universe.”

“You made your point.”

“So I have a way you can rescue this Kelpie
dude and not be in any danger at all.”

“I’m listening.”

“Morph into Ms. Turner, walk in there and let
him go.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“She’d find out she had a doppelganger and
she’d put two and two together.”

“There’d be no proof.”

“They probably have security cameras.”

“Hey.” I turned to Ivy. “How’d you get me
outta that house?”

“I told you, we found you wandering the
street.”

“Yeah, and I’ll believe that the day LA
plastic surgeons go out of business.”

I looked at the girl, remembering what I’d
done. “I have another way to go in, but you’ll have to contact your
friend. Tell him I’m coming. He won’t be able to see me or scent
me.”

“Cool.”

“And we have to pull into shore someplace.
Being over water disrupts the energy.”

“Now you’re talkin’ but can we eat first? I’m
starving.” Jay sat down and wrapped his arm around Ivy, grinning
from ear to ear. She didn’t move a muscle.

“
Jay…”

“
You don’t have to say it. She’s sixteen.
I’m going to be a perfect gentleman. I swear.”

“
Jay…”

“
I know, Char. You’re welcome.”

I stayed silent for a few moments, wondering
if he had more to say. Ya never knew with Jay. So I said out loud,
“Okay. I guess we can eat. I can’t go in until night time
anyway.”

IVY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

We ate at a
chain Mexican place, better than the fast food version but not as
good as the local family-owned restaurant I used to wait tables at.
Jay was finishing his second beef burrito and Charlie had scarfed
down at least three tacos. Man, these boys could eat. Seems like
arguing was an appetite booster for shapeshifters. Arguing always
left me feeling nauseous.

“Eat. You’re so small we won’t be able to see
you if you stand sideways,” Jay said in between swallows.

“That had better not be a boob joke,” I
grumbled.

“They’re perfect. Don’t sweat it.” Suddenly
my face was hot enough to fry eggs on. “Hey, you’re the one who
mentioned them.” Jay wasn’t even looking at me, but I could see his
mouth twitch. The dope.

Charlie pushed his plate away, grunting with
the satisfied sounds guys usually made. “That was good.”